A note on ‘Labour value and socialist economic calculation’

1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-109
Author(s):  
Gavan Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Economic Calculation ◽  
Socialist Economic

Technical or political? The socialist economic calculation debate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago Camarinha Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Austrian School ◽  
Economic Calculation ◽  
Standard Interpretation ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Mainstream Economics ◽  
Political Position ◽  
Socialist Economic ◽  
Technical Terms

Abstract The paper presents both the key arguments and the historical context of the socialist economic calculation debate. I argue that Oskar Lange presented the most developed strategy to deal with bourgeois economics, decisively helping to create the scientific consensus that rational economic calculation under socialism is possible. Lange’s arguments based on standard economic theory reveal that the most ardent defenders of capitalism cannot reject socialism on technical terms and that, as a consequence, the Austrian School was left with no choice but to diverge from mainstream economics in its search to develop a framework that could support its political position. This shows that Mises’ challenge from 1920 was solved and has been replaced by a political posture developed by Hayek and leading Austrians economists, who have been struggling since the 1980s to revise the standard interpretation of the socialist economic calculation debate. I argue that this revision should not be uncritically accepted and conclude that socialism cannot be scientifically rejected; it can only be politically rejected, by those whose economic interests it opposes.

scholarly journals Varieties of Entrepreneurial Function under Totalitarian (dis)Orders

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando D'Andrea ◽  
João Daniel Ruettimann
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Economic Calculation ◽  
Market System ◽  
Secondary Markets ◽  
The People ◽  
Socialist Economic ◽  
Totalitarian Regimes ◽  
Means Of Production

Communist’s collectivistic approach to social order is based upon the premise that private means of production should be abolished, and instead be managed by a centralized power representing the people as a whole. As such, it defies one of the most inherent characteristics of human condition, the innate, creative, subjective, and perennial search for a better condition in life expressed by the entrepreneurial function. Thispaper uses the Austrian School’s praxeology to show how entrepreneurs, as motors of the market system, end up being also the most relevant and widespread challengers to the socialist approach to economics. The real exercise of entrepreneurship defies the unreal socialist economic system in three basic ways: by exercising this latent entrepreneurial function in the most unfavorable conditions creating secondary markets in order to correct an official planned scarcity; by escaping the widespread statist mentality in socialist societies; and by actually exercising economic calculation in spite of the politburo calculus. The paper shows that as much as there are varieties of social order there is a on the kind of entrepreneurial function, which is impossible to eradicate from individuals. Therefore, even when totalitarian regimes take place, entrepreneurship finds ways to exist and emerges albeit of a different lacunar kind, in the shadows, supplying for consumer’s wellbeing under the limits of such societal disorder and, more importantly, bringing to light the intrinsic impossibility of the socialist economic arrangement.

scholarly journals Bruno Leoni and the socialist economic calculation debate

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-64
Author(s):  
Carmelo Ferlito
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Austrian Economics ◽  
Economic Calculation ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Great Debate ◽  
Socialist Economic ◽  
The 1960S

The Italian contribution to the Socialist Economic Calculation Debate (SECD) cannot be limited to the important and fundamental works by Pareto and Barone. In fact, if their contributions are still ambiguous and we have to wait for the Mises’ paper in 1920 in order to get the needed clarifications, during the 1960s Bruno Leoni follows the Austrian footsteps on the topic, stimulating in Italy a great debate. Bruno Leoni’s role is important because of the debate he promotes and the scholars he involves, but also because he places the matter of the socialist economic calculation in the broader context of the rule of law. Key words: Bruno Leoni, Socialist Economic Calculation Debate, Austrian Economics. JEL Classification: B25, P21, P22. Resumen: La contribución italiana al debate sobre el cálculo económico socialista (SECD) no puede limitarse a las aportaciones importantes y funda-mentales de Pareto y Barone. De hecho, si sus contribuciones son todavía ambiguas y tenemos que esperar al trabajo de Mises de 1920 para obtener las aclaraciones necesarias, durante la década de los sesenta Bruno Leoni siguió los pasos de los austriacos en lo referente a este tema, estimulando en Italia un gran debate. El papel de Bruno Leoni es importante debido al debate que promueve y a los académicos que implica, pero también porque sitúa la cuestión del cálculo económico socialista en el contexto más amplio del Estado de Derecho. Palabras clave: Bruno Leoni, debate sobre el cálculo económico socialista, Economía Austriaca. Clasificación JEL: B25, P21, P22.

Labour value and socialist economic calculation

1989 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Cockshott ◽  
Allin Cottrell
Keyword(s):  
Economic Calculation ◽  
Socialist Economic
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